Herbal News SA Archive: November 2025 Herbal Practices and Traditional Medicine Updates

When you think about herbal medicine, the use of plants and plant extracts for healing, rooted in centuries of cultural knowledge and modern research. Also known as phytotherapy, it’s not just about teas and tinctures—it’s a living system of care practiced daily in homes, clinics, and rural communities across South Africa. This isn’t theoretical. In November 2025, herbal practitioners in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape were out in the fields, harvesting muti, sharing knowledge with apprentices, and pushing back against laws that threaten their ability to practice freely. These aren’t distant stories—they’re real, urgent, and deeply personal.

Behind every herbal remedy is a network of people: the traditional healers, recognized custodians of indigenous knowledge who combine spiritual insight with plant expertise, the herbal practitioners, often formally trained or certified, blending traditional wisdom with evidence-based approaches, and the communities who rely on them. In November, we saw how these roles overlap and sometimes clash—like when a healer in Mthatha used umhlonyane to treat respiratory infections while a clinic nearby prescribed antibiotics. Both were treating the same symptoms, but only one had the plant stock on hand. This isn’t a debate about which is better—it’s about access, trust, and survival.

What you’ll find in this archive isn’t just a list of articles. It’s a snapshot of what mattered in South Africa’s herbal world during November 2025: new research on rooibos and inflammation, debates over patenting indigenous plants, community-led seed banks in the Western Cape, and the quiet work of elders teaching the next generation how to identify muti without harming the land. You’ll read about how droughts are changing what plants are available, how youth are using TikTok to share herbal tips, and why some clinics now keep a herbalist on staff. These aren’t trends—they’re shifts in how people stay healthy when the system fails them.

There’s no single answer to healing. But in South Africa, herbal medicine remains one of the most reliable, affordable, and culturally grounded ways people care for themselves and their families. What you’re about to read is the real stuff—the stories, the struggles, and the solutions that don’t make international headlines but keep communities alive.